~*~Chapter 7~*~

~*~Hermes' POV~*~

Ok, that was close. If I hadn't seen that person on my way to the Library then Cupid would've won the bet!

And as for that disgusting… whatever you can call it, ugh! How… how ewww!

Anyway, as I was on my way to the Library, I saw a thin, strict-looking lady with her hair in a tight bun patrolling the corridors. I thought that she might get those two out of the Library and into their own bedrooms, away from each other. I managed to kick a suit of armor and get her to go to the Library. I got there before her, in time to see Cupid this close to winning the bet.

When Cupid joined me on top of the book case I was sitting on, and was starting to gloat, that lady came just in time to stop the happenings.

"Who is that?" Asked Cupid as the lady was demanding an explanation.

"No idea. I saw her on the way here and I thought I would bring her along."

"Did she see you?"

"Funny you should ask that…" I was about to tell him what had happened during my trip to the Dungeons (The anecdote had slipped my mind when I met Cupid earlier in Hermione's bedroom) when Cupid interrupted me and wanted to listen in on what was going on between those two and the lady.

"I never would have expected this from you two. What are you doing out of your rooms after hours?" Demanded the lady.

"Ummm… I was patrolling the corridors when I heard a sound in the Library, so I went to investigate." Stammered Draco Malfoy.

"An interesting story Mr. Malfoy, however you are not scheduled for patrol duty tonight. And what's your story, Ms. Granger?" The lady asked sarcastically.

"I couldn't sleep, so I wanted to finish my Potions paper." Said Hermione, limply waving the piece of parchment that I had seen earlier.

"By the way, what is with those lyrics she's writing?" I asked Cupid.

"Shh, I want to hear what the lady has to say." Said Cupid, leaning closer to get a better view of the dilemma slowly unfolding.

"Since you two were out of your rooms after hours, ten points from Gryffindor and Slytherin and detention with me. You will report to me after lunch tomorrow to receive information on your detention."

"But-"

"No excuses, Mr. Malfoy."

"Well," said Cupid after the three had left, "Since I won't be able to do much right now, I think I'll just go to sleep. What are you going to do tomorrow?"

"I was going to suggest a break for a few days to plan our next step. How about, say, a week of not doing anything to do with the wager?"

"Melody to my ears. Why don't we just hang out around the school tomorrow?

"Good. By the way, I'll have to introduce you to someone I met earlier today. It seems that one of the professors can see me."

"Uh-huh, interesting. But I'll have to meet them tomorrow, when I'm fully awake. I'm blaming you for keeping me awake this long."  Said Cupid grumpily. "I'm tired, and I'm not very nice when I'm tired."

"Oh, so it's a problem with sleep then!" I said awed.

If looks could have killed, I would have been splattered.

I guess it was a good thing Cupid was so tired; he didn't have any energy to waste on me…

~*~

The next day, I met Cupid at the dungeons in the afternoon.

"Maybe you can explain why he is the only mortal who can see me." I told Cupid as we walked in.

"Hey! Professor Snape! How are ya?" I asked as I appeared before him. Snape looked up at me with the usual sneer before asking: "What do you want now?"

"I want you to meet one of my best friends. Eros, Snape. Snape, Eros."

"Look, I have no time for any jokes, especially from a sniveling god who can't solve his own problems."

No prizes for guessing who made that remark…

"Hermes, why can he see you and not me?" Asked Cupid.

"Who are you talking to?" Demanded Snape.

I could tell that this wasn't such a good idea after all…

"Snape," I said, with the patience of someone trying to explain that one plus one equaled two to a little kid; "This is Eros" I pointed to Cupid, who was sitting on a desk watching the conversation thoughtfully. "Eros is my friend, who also challenged me to the wager I told you about."

Snape looked at me with an expression that made Medusa look like Miss World.

"Alright then, hello Eros." Said Snape in the general direction of where Cupid was sitting.

"Why does everyone insist on calling me Eros? No one uses that name anymore. My name is Cupid! Honestly, you'd think after a few hundred years-" Cupid was ranting and raving. I don't think he got enough sleep…

"He prefers to be called Cupid."  I told Snape.

"Do I care?" Asked Snape.

"Hermes," Interrupted Cupid, "Ask him what time lunch finishes."

When I relayed the information to Snape, he replied: "In fifteen minutes."

"And what subject does he teach?" Asked Cupid, suddenly realizing something. Obviously, I couldn't tell what it was, I'm no mind reader.

"Potions, duh." I replied.

"No need to be snappish. I figured out why he can see you."

"You did? Why can he see me? Tell me, tell me!" I asked excited.

"Why are you jumping up and down like a first year?" Asked Snape, annoyed that I interrupted his ignoring me.

"Cupid figured out why you can see me." I said excitedly.

"It's about time. Seems like Athena isn't the only one with the brains." Said Snape, relived that he wouldn't have to tell me.

"By the way," I turned towards Cupid, "Why can he see me?"

"Later. I want to see what the lady gave them for detention." And with that, he flew off.

 Speaking of which…

I turned towards Snape and asked: "Who was that lady I saw in the Library last night?"

"What is this, a bad joke?"

"Seriously, I led this lady to the Library, where Draco and Hermione were, and she saw them and gave them detention. And it was about time! They were this close to kissing!" I held my finger and thumb a short distance away from each other. "Actually, Draco was going to kiss Hermione, who fell asleep at the table. But I don't think he realized it-"

"Before you start relating a cheesy novel, what did the lady look like?"

"I was going to tell you, no need to be impatient." I said, annoyed that he had interrupted me. "She was thin, with kind of red hair that was pulled up in a tight bun. She was also tall-ish, and she didn't look like a student, I think she was a teacher."

"Did she have wire-rimmed glasses?" Asked Snape, looking slightly interested.

"I think so."

"That was professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor."

"Oh."  Well, what else could I say? I suddenly realized that it would be useful to see what would happen during the detention.

"Well, it was nice talking to you again, but I have to go."

"So soon?" Asked Snape sarcastically.

"Yeah. But I'll be back. Cupid hasn't told me why you can see me and I think I'll have to wait a while before he does, so I'll have to try and worm it out of you." I said cheerfully.

"Oh no…" Moaned Snape with his head on the desk.

I had to find McGonagall's office- "CRASH!"

"Ow…" Moaned Cupid, rubbing his head. "Why don't you look where you're going?"

"It wasn't my fault you were right outside the door!" I complained.

"Well, I was going to enter and tell you that their detention is next week. While the lady was talking to them, some guy entered and offered to take the detention off the lady's hands and supervise them himself."

"Any idea who that guy was?"

"Nope. I think he's a teacher though."

"Gee, helpful." I said sarcastically.

"At least I found out what happened to those two. You, on the other hand, were chatting to that potions professor."

"Oh yeah? At least I found out who the lady was while I was 'chatting to that professor'."

"Oh really? Who was she?"

"The head of Gryffindor. Yes, that's Hermione's house." I added tiredly before Cupid could speak. "So, what's up with you and Euterpe?" I asked innocently. Cupid turned bright red and mumbled: "Nothing."

"Yeah right. And Hercules has a higher IQ than Athena."

"He does?"

"Come on Cupid, I've been your best bud for eons. What's up with you and Euterpe? You know something about her that Narcissus doesn't! No? She has a crush on someone else!" I was saying whatever I could think of. One of these ideas had to be true! "You have a crush on her! Oh Hades, you do!" I exclaimed when Cupid blushed an even deeper shade of red.

 "No I don't. Besides, she already has a boyfriend." Said Cupid.

"Yeah, but you didn't bring those two together, did you?"

"No."

"There you have it. A match that you weren't responsible for can never be."

"Not necessarily. There are plenty of couples who got together without my help. My job is to push the shy in the right direction."

"Or in some cases, shove." I muttered under my breath.

"The point is, I don't have a crush on Euterpe and that's final." Said Cupid firmly.

"Uh-huh, yeah right." I said, not believing him for one second.

"It's true!" Exclaimed Cupid.

"All right, all right! If it's true, it's true." I said with a shrug. I didn't feel like bothering with the whole matter anyway.

"So," I said, looking at Cupid, "What d'you wanna do?"

"Dunno," replied Cupid, "What d'you wanna do?" We looked at each other and started laughing. It was an old joke we had a few years ago.

"Oh yeah, what happened in McGonagall's office? I need the details." I asked Cupid.

"Nothing much. Draco was trying to do a last-minute talking out of the detention, and Hermione was just sitting there, looking stony. Then this man walked in and interrupted McGonagall just before she was going to give those two their detention."

"What did he look like?" I asked.

"Hmmm… let's see… He had two eye, two legs, and a nose-" one glare from me stopped him, then he gave me the important details. "He looked like he was in his late thirties or something, but he aged before his time. He had brown hair, and though I wasn't sure, but I think he had these weird amber-ish coloured eyes."

"What else?"

"Well, I think he had a mouth, and two arms, and get this, he has two han-"

It was only by chasing him around Hogwarts did I get the details of the Detention.

After I had finally found out that the detention was going to be held in a few days from today, I tried to grill Cupid on his relationship with Euterpe. Unfortunately, he didn't want to talk about it, insisting that they were good friends, they knew each other for centuries, yadda yadda yadda… you know the drill.

 When we set off to give the caretaker a hard time, I pondered the situation for a while.

It was time to a bit of my own matchmaking…

~*~

A/N: New chapter! Yippee!

So, there you have it. The person who walked in was McGonagall! Thanks to everyone for having a go at guessing who the person was. You guys are welcome to try and guess who was the guys who interrupted Professor McGonagall, but I think it's pretty obvious, isn't it?!

Anyway, this chapter didn't come out the way I wanted it to be, but it's better than having no chapter, isn't it.

I'll have a look at the fic when I finish, and repost or edit anything that just seems… awful.

Oh ya, someone "mentioned" that I had a fact wrong concerning Cupid's name. I hope this chapter cleared it up and I'm sorry. Here's something I want to tell you:

First of all, you could have been a bit nicer when you told me about the mistake, it's something called "common courtesy".

Second, and this is to everyone out there, if there is something wrong with my facts, then you either let me know about it nicely or you can offer to read any chapters before I post them, to keep the facts straight.

I don't like it when people are rude to me for absolutely no reason, and I was already having a bad enough day as it was without their flame.

Now that I've gotten that of my chest, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed and supported me while I was writing this fic. And thanks to McG for being my beta! By the way, if anyone wants me to beta their fics, you're welcome to ask.

That's all folks!

MiChA